Millions of people have been where I am today, music enthusiasts looking to enter the audiophile world. Before going any further, defining what an audiophile refers to is necessary.
Pronounced as “aw·dee·o·file,” an audiophile is a person who is dedicated to the art of high-fidelity sound reproduction. I say art because, analogous to looking at a photograph of a painting in a museum, there is a world of difference between what the “artist” paints and what we actually perceive. What was an ultramarine sky might appear as cobalt on Instagram; nevertheless, the Starry Night is uniquely identifiable. The accuracy of the color reproduction on our screens is rarely, if ever, discussed. And so, it is with music.
The strum of a guitar string travels through a microphone, is processed using a multitude of software, then travels across the internet and through file compression programs (which is an article in itself), through our computers, and the amplifiers, which is then fed to the speakers which reproduce the music. And breathe…
It is, therefore, no surprise that the music we hear is not perfect. This brings me to what we can do about it because perfection has been the goal for audiophiles like us. Music, at least for me, is best enjoyed raw, live, and I don’t mean concerts with stacks of speakers, though they’re delightful too. Orchestra’s employ hundreds of musicians only to ensure that the melody reaching everyone’s ears is a sound that emanated from the strings of the violins a few moments ago. Reproducing this ideally is what I supposed audiophiles aspire to achieve. Trying to achieve perfection in music production and mastering is a different ballgame altogether, which I am apologetically not very well-versed in. What I can, however, talk about is trying to perfect the “listening.”
Perfecting the Listening
My newest acquisition, the Superlux HD668B, is what prompted me to write this article. Superlux (unrelated to the soap Lux or even the innerwear brand Lux) is a Taiwanese company that focuses on bang-for-the-buck audio solutions. Why then has no one heard about them, and why do people buy horrendous-sounding headphones like Skullcandy and Beats?
The biggest reason, I believe, is that where I come from, India is still aloof to the concept of good audio. These headphones aren’t sold in India, and the only way to come by them is to get them through AliExpress. With the market flooding with cheap, glitzy, Bluetooth gizmos, manufacturers and importers have even less of an incentive. I will concede that these would be terrible for most people as they are the exact opposite of the gizmos that people are attracted to.
They are extremely large and do not fold, and they are far, far away from being fashionable. They creak when you take them off and are rather uncomfortable with the stock earpads (pretty obvious where they saved money). They also have no noise cancellation and only work with a wire. So, for the general population, they are absolutely useless.
Yet, they do the one thing they were built for unbelievably well: reproduce music.
Music should flow around you, not be stuck in the center of your head. An evening spent at an “Audiophile Cafe” in Barcelona opened my ears to what I previously thought was impossible. Though I was standing a foot away from speakers (albeit costing over 10 grand), I could hear drums playing 10 feet away and the vocalist singing 5 feet in front of me. The clarity, the separation, and the detail were astounding.
Imagine Dolby Atmos but a thousand times better and using just two speakers.
This is almost an impossible task for most headphones, with even the most expensive Sennheiser’s, Focal’s, and Meze’s of the world falling short (this is pure conjecture). Now imagine being able to capture even 20% of the magic that I experienced that day. That is what the Superlux’s are like. Oh, there’s magic alright, and it just cost me 15, let me say that again, fifteen euros…
What magic?
These are semi-open-back headphones, which means there is a lot of sound leakage. It lets most of the outside world in and much of the music out at higher volumes. But this is what makes them so magical and exhilarating. I can hear every beat completely independent of the one before it. The “open” nature of the headphones eliminates unnecessary reverb, preserving the music from being affected by the superimposition of reflected waves. Take this with a grain of salt, as I am not an expert in acoustics yet. What this means to the layman is that I don’t need to worry about the bass guitar affecting how the drums sound and can enjoy them together in perfect balance. It also means is that the next time my mother screams from the kitchen, I can answer her before she storms into my room!
What “audiophile” grade gear like these headphones help me recognize is is genuinely extraordinary music. Music that is mastered to perfection and sounds exceptional at all volumes, with each note and each instrument flawlessly harmonizing with one another. And extraordinary music, consequently, makes these incredible headphones resting on my head shine. The other side of this is that I can also instantly tell when the music is “poor.” From shoddily spliced and edited tracks where you notice the transition from one segment to the other, to music with clipping, to over-amplified “bass,” and the list continues. There are a number of ways to ruin a recording, and it becomes a hundred times easier to detect it with these. So many songs I used to love listening to are now ruined for me because of how unremarkable they sound. This, to me, is a worthy trade-off and should instead make music producers want to do a better job.
Getting into the Technicalities
As an example, consider the evergreen song “Hotel California” by The Eagles. The acoustic guitars, complemented by the warm electric guitars and cymbals playing in the background, perfectly envelop your head, making you feel as if you are center stage. And the ever-so-perfect notes of the hi-hat cymbals that cut across the bass guitar.
This isn’t a testament to the greatness of the song; rather, it is a homage to how songs should be mastered. And perfectly mastered music can be found in all genres, from blues to post-rock to even lo-fi!
In my pursuit of discovering new artists, I have begun appreciating music with a “high-dynamic range.”
HDR in music, you might ask? Just like photographs, dynamic range refers to the difference between the softest and loudest parts of the music. And it is this very quality that makes symphonies so spine-tingling, with a dynamic range of over 30dB. Hans Zimmer, one of my favorite composers, takes this to the extreme making the warm mid-bass notes feel so special after the very quiet treble-filled segments.
At the other end of the spectrum lies EDM, with the worst dynamic range, which is why music at clubs sounds like it’s been through a food processor first and then mashed together with bass. To better imagine this, think of your favorite song. I’m hoping this has some quiet, and some fast and loud parts. Now imagine the quiet parts being as loud as the fast, bassy parts, and you find all the joy and excitement in the music has been lost. However, for drunk dancing at 1am, this is perfect. Symphonies, jazz pieces, and EDM hits are all created to please different audiences, which is why different headphones are also made to please different audiences.
To those who use this as an argument to defend their beats and Skullcandy’s, I say that bass can sound so, so much better. Planar headphones make listening to EDM a pleasure, with the bass hitting you hard and fast. Superlux’s, in contrast, use conventional neodymium magnet-based drivers. These produce a magnetic field that causes the diaphragm to oscillate as a function of the frequency of the alternating current to the magnets, which we perceive as music. This can be translated to a frequency response (FR) curve showing the amplitude of sound reproduced at different input frequencies.
An average human can perceive sound from 20Hz to 20kHZ. From 20Hz to about 150Hz lie the bass frequencies, from 150Hz to 300Hz the upper bass, from 300Hz all the way to 2kHz lie the mids, and from 2kHz onwards the treble. And it’s the mids that contain vocals, instruments, and everything in between. Reproducing the mids perfectly means job half done for most headphone manufacturers. And looking at the FR curve for the Superlux, it is apparent they’ve got that right.
With an almost flattish response all the way from 400Hz to 1kHz, they sound incredibly natural. Vocals sound out of this world, especially in songs like Iktara and Khwaab, with Kavita Seth ever-present amidst the drums, guitar, and flute. Adding to this is the slightly elevated mid-bass, which although goes against the goal of perfection, makes the music sound incredibly pleasurable. Male baritones sound richer and deeper with the power to raise your hair.
Arijit Singh does get better, trust me.
But the best part, is the sparkly highs i.e., the peaky treble which lends the headphones their incredible detail and imaging, resulting in the brain being able to discern between sounds millimeters from each other. Complicated songs are reproduced with such gusto it makes me want to listen to them in a loop. The way 孤独の発明 by toe and Me and Your Mama sound can only be experienced; words aren’t enough. Shout-out to Donald Glover who is a legend!
Adding to their incredible dynamics are the 56 Ω drivers. Being more “resistant,” they require agreater amount of current to produce the same decibel of sound when compared to other headphones. Why is this better? Because it makes them more sensitive. The variation in power flowing to them leads to incremental changes in the oscillations of the diaphragm, leading to better reproduction of miniscule changes in the musical frequencies.
Do you spend the 30€ on a new pair?
More expensive headsets have a much flatter response through the audible range, and are more sensitive with 300 Ω, even 600 Ω drivers. Despite the imperfections, these are my first pair of headphones that I use without equalizing (EQ-ing). Equalizing refers to altering the frequency response of the music using filters before it is fed to the headphones (if you’re remembering college EEE classes, I’m sorry). The BLON-BL03’s, my go-to pair of IEMs (In-Ear Monitors), changed character like a chameleon would after EQ-ing, bringing me ever closer to the Harman curve. The Harman Curve is the optimal sound signature that most people prefer in their headphones.
But the Superlux’s, they make me confused. I equalize them, and then I reset the filters because of how close these get to my ideal sound signature in stock form. Having been immersed in the audiophile world for well over two years now, I am now questioning the supposed principle that has guided audiophiles which is whether perfection is the ultimate goal...
These, then, are like the street artists that dared to challenge the might of Picasso and Michelangelo.
What Superlux has here is a diamond in the rough, beating hundred-dollar open-back headphones and easily beating most “commercial” headphones. I did get a chance to test the Airpods Max a few weeks ago, and though they are superior, the Superlux’s come very, very close, even beating the Airpods at some aspects, at 1/40th the price! And this simple fact perfectly sums up my thoughts.
Superlux for the win!